A judge on Tuesday awarded a Jackson woman and her husband $600,435 in a lawsuit arising from an abortion the woman received in 2003.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Bill Gowan awarded the money after issuing a default judgment for Daschica Thomas and her husband, Christopher Thomas, after no one showed for the scheduled Nov. 29 trial of the lawsuit.
The medical malpractice lawsuit was filed in 2005 against Dr. Joseph Booker, the then-Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion clinic, the National Women’s Health Organization of Jackson and others.

The lawsuit alleges that Booker stopped performing the abortion shortly after starting it and said he was unable to finish it. He recommended that Thomas come back so it could be completed by another doctor. “Booker did not recommend antibiotics to her,” according to court papers. Thomas, a diabetic, began cramping and went home, but there “she continued to spot, bleed and she felt dizzy, sick and feverish.”

The abortion led to sepsis poisoning, and Thomas was in a coma for a week and half, according to the lawsuit.

“As default judgment has been entered, all factual allegations must be taken as true and if those facts establish a legal basis for recovery, plaintiff is entitled to recover,” Gowan said. “The court does find the factual allegations establish a medical malpractice action and is therefore inclined to award damages.”

Gowan awarded $500,000 in noneconomic damages to the couple, of which $100,000 goes to the husband; $19,820.83 to Thomas for lost wages and $9,700 to her husband for lost wages; $64,914.60 for Thomas’ medical bills; and $6,000 in punitive damages.

JACKSON — A state judge has entered a default judgment in a lawsuit that claimed a woman nearly died from a failed abortion in Mississippi that left her in a coma for a week.

Daschica Thomas and her husband filed the lawsuit in 2005 in Hinds County Circuit Court against Dr. Joseph Booker, the National Women’s Health Organization of Jackson and others. The suit claimed Thomas went into the coma because of a blood infection brought on by a botched abortion in 2003.

Circuit Judge William Gowan entered the default judgment Tuesday in Thomas’ favor after the defendants didn’t show up for trial. The ruling didn’t mention damages, and it wasn’t immediately clear when that issue would be decided.

The ruling came less than a month after Mississippi voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have effectively banned abortions in the state.

Thomas’ attorney had no comment when contacted Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Mark Wann, who once represented Booker in the case, said he’s no longer involved in the litigation and wouldn’t comment. Wann said he doesn’t know where to find Booker. A phone number for Booker wasn’t immediately available.

The state Department of Health said Mississippi had two licensed abortion clinics in 2003, and the state has only one now. The current clinic is on the same Jackson site as the former clinic, but under different ownership.

Shannon Brewer is director of All Women’s Healthcare of Jackson, which is currently the only abortion clinic in Mississippi. She said the National Women’s Health Organization no longer owns the Mississippi clinic and Booker doesn’t work at the clinic now. Brewer said she doesn’t know where he is.

The lawsuit claims that Booker wasn’t the doctor originally scheduled to perform the abortion, but the other doctor was out that day. When Booker was performing the abortion, he allegedly stopped abruptly, said he couldn’t finish it and told Thomas to come back so it could be completed by the other doctor.

The lawsuit claims a “reasonably prudent” physician would have treated Thomas with antibiotics because of her diabetes, but Booker didn’t. Thomas allegedly came down with a blood infection, went into a coma and needed blood transfusions. The lawsuit also claims, among other things, that Thomas couldn’t have children after the abortion and that her husband lost his job for missing work while caring for her.

Booker performed abortions in Mississippi for years and found himself in controversial situations before.

In December 1999, three dozen bags of aborted fetuses and other remains were found buried in a shallow grave behind a business in the Gulf Coast city of Ocean Springs. An investigation revealed that the fetuses came from a storage room Booker had rented in nearby Gulfport, a city where he had performed abortions at a gynecology clinic.

Booker had pleaded guilty in July 1999 to tax evasion and was sentenced to five months in federal prison.

Someone purchased the contents of the storage unit, sight unseen, at auction and moved the items to a storage unit in Ocean Springs. Some of the items smelled and the new owner directed an employee to get rid of them, apparently not knowing they were fetuses.

In 1996, lawmakers passed a bill that required licensing for doctors’ offices at which 10 or more abortions were performed a month. That law was aimed at Booker, who had claimed his medical office did more than perform abortions and he did not have to meet requirements as an abortion clinic.